Kalamazoo’s inaugural Black Pride festival takes place this weekend in Bates Alley
“We’re at a special time in history where it’s important to reclaim and claim our joy and the beauty of our gathering together and basking in the creativity and ingenuity and community that we have created and that we can continue to create through an event like this,” Michelle S. Johnson, executive director and co-founder of the Institute of Public Scholarship, told Watershed Voice.
Johnson organized the inaugural event alongside Michael Cleggs-Arnott of OutFront Kalamazoo.
Come celebrate Black queer joy in downtown Kalamazoo this weekend as OutFront Kalamazoo and the Institute of Public Scholarship host the inaugural Kalamazoo Black Pride.
The first-of-its-kind event will take place from 2 to 8 p.m. Saturday, August 29, at Bates Alley in downtown Kalamazoo.
There will be live music, opportunities to connect with community organizations and a celebration of Black queer joy.
“We’re at a special time in history where it’s important to reclaim and claim our joy and the beauty of our gathering together and basking in the creativity and ingenuity and community that we have created and that we can continue to create through an event like this,” Michelle S. Johnson, executive director and co-founder of the Institute of Public Scholarship, told Watershed Voice.
Johnson organized the inaugural event alongside Michael Cleggs-Arnott of OutFront Kalamazoo.
The event will largely be a celebration of Black queer arts and culture, as well as a gathering space for people within the community to be together.
Johnson said the event is not intended to fill something missing from other Pride celebrations, but rather to create a distinct opportunity for Black queer people to gather and celebrate one another.
“I don’t think it’s what’s missing at all,” Johnson said. “I think it’s what’s present when we have the opportunities to bring Black queer people together to celebrate each other.”
Johnson said the idea was inspired by Hotter Than July, a Black LGBTQ+ celebration in Detroit, and Black Pride in Chicago. With Kalamazoo situated between the two cities, Johnson said the city was a natural place to host a Black Pride celebration of its own.
This is the third time the Institute of Public Scholarship and OutFront Kalamazoo have partnered to bring Black queer people together, with the previous two events taking place in more nature-based settings.
Johnson described those gatherings as pilots that were “kind of like whetting my appetite” for an event like Kalamazoo Black Pride. Johnson also talked about creating a place for Black queer people not only to gather and celebrate, but to make connections with one another.
“We experience the same things that other Black people and other people who’ve been marginalized experience, and so sometimes for Black queer people, it just becomes exacerbated by all of the points of identity that we represent,” Johnson said.
Tickets are $8 and can be purchased online here. Equitable pricing options are also available.
Maxwell Knauer is a staff writer for Watershed Voice.
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